Dishonor Among Promotions: The Hardcore Roadtrip Editorial

Let’s be honest here folks. I’ve been covering wrestling for close to two years and I’ve been covering the women’s wrestling beat in those two years. Reading about the Hardcore Roadtrip fiasco as well as the closing of Extreme Rising makes me realize how crooked professional wrestling is. The young wrestlers disrespect the older, established veterans who paved the way for the young talent; fans getting into the ring without the training; and the worst part, promoters screwing the talent over by not paying them decent money or any travel accommodation. As a fan who watched the sport for over twenty years and covered the sport for two years, these kinds of things makes me sick to my stomach.

Truth be told, wrestling that has crookedness in some promotions has been happening for a very long time and its not going to stop anytime soon. The honor and decency that went with the sport dating back to Martin “Farmer” Burns and Lou Thesz is deceased thanks to disrespectful talent and slimy promoters who care more about themselves than the fans and talent. What Mark Livingston did this past weekend is not only reprehensible by faking a heart attack and screwing a lot of good people in the process but unacceptable on this industry. I know that Hardcore Roadtrip is not gonna come back from the dead after this stunt. I feel terribly bad for the wrestlers and other talent who had to work with a promoter who put himself ahead of the the talent he was supposed to pay for.

I know a few good promoters who will never do the things these crooked promoters would do and I know good wrestlers who would never disrespect the established vets. In fact, The Barbwire Blog supports pro wrestling promotions like SHIMMER and Bellatrix and many other promotions because there are good people that are ruining the joint better than that asshole. It makes me very sad top be involved in the wrestling industry as a columnist. I will still follow the sport and still write about it but I can never forgive the crooked promoters nor the disrespectful wrestlers for the sins they do in the wrestling world. The honor has to be restored in this industry or else chaos and dissent will result and it’s going to be hard to wash the stain off.

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